For more than two years now we’ve been hearing about a mythical (and so far unconfirmed) Baidu phone. Earlier this year we even got word that it would run Android, or rather, Baidu’s modified flavor of Google’s mobile operating system.

It will be introduced soon in cooperation with China Telecom, the country’s smallest carrier. The Cloud Phone will come with many Baidu-specific apps, and will be used by the Chinese search giant (often referred to as ‘the Google of China’) to push its new Baidu Cloud brand. So do expect tight integration with the company’s ‘cloud’ offerings.

Like Google, Baidu has surely understood that the future of search is mobile, and so it wants to be well positioned to serve its customers fully in this space too.

The Baidu Cloud Phone will have a 4.5-inch 540×960 touchscreen, a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, a 5 MP camera, and dual-mode dual-standby CDMA / GSM operation support. Think of that like dual-SIM, but with one actual SIM slot (for GSM networks), and also with CDMA connectivity for simultaneous operation on China Telecom (the only CDMA-based carrier in China).

Unfortunately no details about a release date for the Cloud Phone have been leaked yet, nor any info on pricing.

Baidu’s first phone effort seems to be less about top specs (compared to Xiaomi’s MI-2 and Meizu’s MX2, this just a midranger at this point), and more about software. Of course, that’s a trend that’s best exemplified by Apple at a bigger scale, so perhaps it’s not a bad thing to do (if the software will be worth it, naturally).